I have a life?

Hey everyone!
It's Thursday and I'm blogging because I'm just kinda blogging whenever I can. Of course I won't blog two weeks from now but, whatever. So my life has been absolutely insane lately! I'm just gonna post most of the e-mail I sent people because I send my family and friends a monthly (sometimes more) e-mail just to say what's up with my music. I've even started getting reactions from them such as: "It's great that you found something you love and are good at" or, "I know how great it feels to be successful with music congrats!" or "hey isn't your name funny? Coral's choral endeavors! however did your parents know?" Usually the responses are more along the lines of: "when do you breath kid!?" So this is my life:
The concert choir performed at music festival earlier and got a gold medal. We also had more fun than a runaway horse! The choreography went better than planned and last night we performed at a choral excellency concert to sing Son De Camaguey and Earth Song. Now we are working on new repertoire for the endish of the year. We started seasons of love (third time i’ve sung it!) and Come Sweet Death, doesn’t that sound pleasant? It’s going to be a fun month after spring break and we are continuing to work very hard.
The divisional choir also performed at music festival. We won 2 gold medals, 2 trophies and a standing ovation. Again, this group also got invited to the choral excellency concert. The choral excellency concert features the 6 best choirs from music festival, 2 at the elementary school level, 2 middle school groups and 2 high schools. Right now everyone is really frazzled in anticipation for Edmonton. (Only 7 more days!!!) We are singing at the University, west Edmonton mall, a church service and a nursing home. Tonight we will be singing our two best songs: Wade in de Water and Ka Hia Manu. We have performed Ka Hia Manu 3 times now but it seems like more since we started it back in september. People are starting to a better job of controlling the poles although it’s really hard when you’re in such a tight space and you have to draw your arm back without hitting anyone (someone always gets hit in the face, please let tonight show that there’s a first time for everything!) In Edmonton we are thinking of singing Let everything that hath breath, come away sweet love ka hia manu, wade in de water, bright morning stars and basically whatever we can have ready by then. In practice we have been attempting to get build me up buttercup ready for Edmonton and the general ruling is: any new people can suck it up and just figure it out. We’ve been having lot’s of fun and we are also getting ready for Cabaret. My friend and I are determined to win a spot in cabaret and are working very hard on anything you can do ( I can do better) from Annie get your gun and so far it’s going pretty well. As a group, we don’t know what we’re singing yet, other than Dancing in the street and it’s still in the beginning stages. Divisional choir is definitely a lot of fun and i can’t wait to go to Edmonton with my friends.

Now we know that Our director (Mrs. Avonlea Armstrong) has won a well deserved award for being such a dedicated conductor and we don't know anyone who could be more deserving.

Yay Mrs. A!!!!!

Ok I'm kinda busy right now so see ya next time I blog!

Bye :)

So busy!!

It's March. and I remembered to blog! wow.
So anyway, he everyone! It's the busiest month of the year. some of my friends say that I say that every month but It's only really true for March. It's actually so busy I have 4 calendars so that no matter where I am I can see one of them and I can add to it. I have one in my phone, google, a paper copy in my binder and one on my wall. Just to give you an idea of what I do I have, Musical practice every Sunday and Monday, choir once almost every day, choir 3 times on Wednesdays, i'm singing at 2 concerts, listening to one, going to a musical, sitting at a talking circle, talking at the school's staff meeting, I have 2 tests that I know of, book club, a Youth Advisory Council, some volunteering, a doctor's appointment somewhere in there and a trip to Edmonton with the choir. Oh yeah and I go to school every day. Last week I had one concert and we won a gold medal!!! This week I have one concert with divisional choir and we are going to sing awesomely! and another concert with jazz choir. :)
I hope everyone had a great week and I'll write again soon. Bye!!

Life is crazy

Hi Everyone!!!!
I did not realize that I have been blogging for over a year. not much blogging actually got done but I have been posting once in a while for over a year. Wow. how did I not notice that? oh well. So I realize it's been almost a month since my last post but I've been really busy between music and a new semester (15.1% over!) and just life in general. So I figured I should probably post while I had some time to myself. right now it's the end of the day at school so I took advantage of the last 10 minutes of Peace & Conflict to start a new post. So lately I've settled into semester 2 last week and it's pretty great. I have gym, grade 10 geography, French/Band, Choir/Jazz, English, Peace & Conflict. It's been lots of fun! In gym I just finished playing floor ball which was a lot of fun. I wasn't very good at it but who cares? and I wasn't That bad. in french we finished our book (finally!) and in band we're working on some very cool songs and that's lots of fun. Of course choir is amazing! Right now we're very busy getting ready for festival and that's been a blast. We're going to sing earth song by Frank Tichelli and Son De Camaguey by Stephen Hatfield. (curse you Stephen Hatfield!) Stephen Hatfield is this really awesome composer who writes some crazy songs that we love to sing. It's now Sunday night and i'm sitting at home doing pretty much nothing. So i'm going to continue. in English we just started Midsummer night's dream. I love Shakespeare and i'm having so much fun!! and then Conflict and peace is really interesting so far. We're finished our first unit about defining peace and we're starting a new one tomorrow. i think it might be my favourite non-musical class. So this week I have an hour of volunteering, a concert, a bunch of choir practices and who knows what else. It'll be fun, it always is. Only difference: I managed to sprain my wrist before all this. So as of today I have to keep it wrapped for however long. Whopdeedoo. Have a great week guys!

Exams, oh joy!

Hi everyone!

Don't we all know that exams make people totally stressed? Well, don't be so stressed! you might not have an amazing exam. I don't think I will! but you should have confidence that you'll do fine! Exams are only as scary as you make them seem. If you studied then you will probably do really well. If you payed attention in class and studied a lot, then you have nothing to worry about. It can be kind of hard to remember things right away, but that's why they tell you when your exams are a month ahead of time and you get lot's of time. If you remember to get lots of sleep, eat well and study (not the night before) then that's awesome. Make sure you get there about 15 minutes early, find your seat, don't stress yourself out before it starts and go to the washroom before, it's only a matter of how well you know the info. Trust me, I've never taken an exam before but I've taken a lot of contests that are at least as complicated as exams. (stupid math contest!) and i know a lot of other people who HAVE taken exams. everyone says the same things so that's what I've been saying to anyone who wants to know. (Now if only I could take my own advice...) Also, If your teacher gives you a chance to review, take it! I just came home from a math review i guess an hour and a half ago and since it's a sunday night we were tired and made weird mistakes (since when does 20-8=14?) but we remembered everything and it was worth it. It was actually surprisingly fun. but other than going crazy studying I've had a life too (sort of) or at least as much a life as I ever have. I was at my cousin's birthday party this weekend and I'm drowning in music. I love babysitting my baby cousin whenever that happens and my 3 choirs are going great! We're getting ready for festival so we're working really really hard but it's a lot of fun and I'm doing what I love so I don't mind so much. Music is something that as much as you love it, you can't forget how hard you're working, you just don't remember that you have to be there. We get to sing some beautiful song and some fun rhythmic songs too. We're singing things like, Wade in de water, Son de camaguey (Cuban folk song), earth song, let the river run and some others. My friend is telling me to stop rambling so much and get to the ending already. So, I hope everyone has a great week, i'll probably post when I'm done exams (wednesday or thursday) and, yeah. 

Have a great week guys!

Happy New Year!!!

Hey everyone!
SO I've been really bad at this whole post once a week thing but I thought I would remember to post for New years eve so here I am! I was actually really busy the weeks I didn't post I didn't just forget about you guys :) So I had all my concerts which went really well actually. We had lots of fun singing at the senior's home and the hospital and our parties. All the parties went well too by the way! We had lots of fun and made these cool handprint  posters for the kids in Newtown, Connecticut. They're not accepting any more because of how many they got so instead you can still do it but just hang them up at YOUR school or workplace and take pictures to send instead. Here's the website! http://helpinghandsfornewtown.weebly.com/ so, onto my post. Obviously I've been liking my music a lot. so I could probably ramble on for a long time but I've just discovered my laptop has 15 min. of battery left and I have to post this tonight.
For starters, or whatever this would be since it's like my, third paragraph, I hope you all had wonderful holidays and any that aren't over yet continue to have wonderful holidays! If you want to comment, please tell me what you celebrate and what your favourite part of that holiday was! After that I have decided to do what a lot of people have suggested: a list of awesome moments in 2012.
Where do I start? Okay this isn't gonna be in order i'll just write it down when I remember it.
1: annual Ski Trip. So much fun! We didn't get much skiing in cuz it was too cold but we had a lot of fun hanging out together.
2: IMC (sorta) It was fun for the most part, I love band so it was fun but I was on crutches so that took a lot away from it. and the food wasn't all that great. I'm told it's a lot better in the summer though. oh well!
3: My first rock concert! I went to go see Rush perform with my best friend and her dad. It was so much fun! (Instant fan here!)
4: PlayLoud; summer band camp. Rock band camp. 2 weeks jam packed of singing and making friends and learning all sorts of neat stuff all while playing with a great band! And the performance was just amazing! Wow!
5: Brandon Jazz Festival: I've been twice now but 2012 was definitely the best. Full house for our performance and then we went to see an amazing concert live! I had so much fun and learned a lot about jazz and about my group. More new friends!
6: PHC Provincial Honor Choir was totally amazing! 3 days of singing with people who love music as much as I do! What could be better? and I met tons of new friends because I only knew 2 people in my choir level. The older choirs however... anyways, lots of fun!
It's getting hard to keep going! I have so much more but I can't think!!
7: Starting High School. That was pretty cool I guess. Lots of fun for sure! I can't believe how fast it goes though. actually I can, it's just like concert season never ends!
8: Meeting all the people in my classes, friend's friends all that but especially the people I'm in choir with. That was probably my favourite moment of 2012. Getting to know all these amazing people that make my everyday life as exciting as it is. :)
9: All the new things I've learned! It's just so much fun!! I've learned so much this year and not long from now, a new year full of new experiences and new friends and new things to learn awaits!
I'm starting to not remember much else, the year kinda went really fast. OH I have another!
10: My baby cousins were born!!!
anyways, like I said not much more to remember. I think the list will be a lot longer next year because I have a plan. I think some of you might like it too!
I decided I'm going to take a jar or a box or something (great plan kid! you don't even know what you're gonna use!) So I'm gonna take the whatever and every time something awesome happens (I think i'm gonna pick one thing from everyday) I'm going to write it down and put it in the whatever so at the end of 2013 I can look back and go awesome! and I can take it out whenever I'm having a bad day too! That should cheer me up!
So I think that's all for now I'll try to post again soon, Bye now!

I'm still alive!

I guess the title kinda says a lot on it's own.
Hi again! I have decided that because of my crazy schedule, I will post once a week. Sundays since that's the only day I'm insanely busy. although this sunday is full of baking. We're finally finishing Candy Cane bark, we're making shortbread, meringues and buttertarts. Still relatively sane though.
So this week was crazy as is every other week of my life. No change in the condition of my arm. It still can't move properly and I won't play french horn. at least for another month. So I have a lot of baking planned for tomorrow but that's not all my friends are getting. everyone on a huge list of mine is getting a personalized Christmas card (that took a couple hours) and then anyone in jazz choir is getting a cute little box of candy cane bark and shortbread and a huge personalized music poster I made myself (pictures to come when I figure out how!)
Music is and always will be my life. This week was no different. Among 2 doctors and 1 physio appointments I also had 2 band classes where I explained to the teachers about my arm and had fun listening to the music. Found out that I really know a lot of musicals when we played "name that musical tune" in class. The candlelight service was absolutely amazing and I can't believe it was a mere week ago. It seems like a month ago now. We sang for a long time and I hung out with some amazing friends of mine and we got annoyed at the MC for saying collage (piece of art) instead of college (with the french e) when introducing our school. It was really fun though and I'm glad I was there. After that though, I went to Guys and Dolls (our school musical) on opening night! It was fantastic and hilarious and knowing the actors just made it that much better. I would not have missed that for anything and I'm so glad I went!! Choir was a lot of fun too, as always. we sang a lot of warmups and started discussing Christmas which can be an interesting topic in choir(s). This week we are going to sing at a seniors Christmas Dinner right before I go to a party dedicated to the hobbit. oh and next week, well i probably shouldn't even go there. but I will. On december 19th I will be at school at 7:30 for jazz choir where I will give out presents and cards and sing! then at 8:30 when school starts, I go to physio again. after that at 10:50ish, we go sing at a seniors home. We should come back in time to have a potluck Christmas lunch with choir. After that i go to my remaining 2 classes after which I go to divisional choir!! We are going to walk to the hospital and sing there for a while and then walk back to the school and have a pizza supper and I am going to hand out cards to those I haven't already given them to.
I can't wait for the rest of my month and I wish everyone was as fortunate as me. Happy Holidays everyone and have a wonderful new year!

I'm surviving so far!

Hi again!
So I love performing and I love concert season and I am grateful that I have all these opportunities. Still, it leaves little room for error and I was so proud of myself when I didn't sprain my ankle (huge accomplishment for me by the way) anyway so I thought everything was fine and then we got into a small accident. at first it seemed like no one got hurt so it was kind of like okay we can live with that. Three days after the accident (Wednesday morning) I couldn't move my arm. now this has happened before, I hyper-extended something in my shoulder while reaching for my french horn from a high shelf. So we went to get it looked at and found out that I didn't hyper-extend anything and it's not dislocated. Technically, as far as the doctors know, there's nothing wrong with me. Obviously something is wrong but they don't know what. Anyhow enough about my arm, I wrote to tell you about my busy life lately.
So as I have said multiple times, I love performing. More than that though, I love the people I perform with. Clearly i won't say much about them other than to say that they are amazing and talented people and some of them are the reason I do what I do. Thanks everyone! So this year I have decided that to thank them for their hard work this concert season and for all their help and kind words, I will give them a yummy holiday treat. Candy cane bark is amazing but I will always say that you can't have really tasted it until you've had it homemade. I am making as much bark as I can and I'm giving it to a good part of my friends to thank them. If you don't know what it is, real candy cane bark is made from chocolate (usually white) and crushed candy canes. Now, the store bought stuff is chocolate and artificial flavoring. but if it's really handmade you can tell. I just spent 5 hours peeling 500 candy canes so that my friends will get the authentic taste they deserve. Also, if I was to go really far I would spend about 3 hours crushing the candy canes with a hammer. But i am not my grandmother and therefore I use a food processor. Either way my friends will love their present (I think).
So I told you I would tell you about my crazy life and I got side-tracked by my amazing friends. Like I told you, the 21st was an interesting day to say the least. All I can really say is that we had so much fun and I wouldn't trade that memory for anything. Since then I've had school sometimes but not too much homework, my teachers are pretty nice about the whole no time and clumsiness thing. Also, since the 21st i've had only one concert. It was a few days ago and it was a lot of fun but I never got to play my french horn because of the accident. Still fun though cuz there was still choir and lot's of amazing music. And I have another concert tomorrow. It is going to be the best concert of the whole season. It's the annual holiday candlelight concert and it will be amazing. Not only do I have the chance to be in 2 of the choirs, but I have the honor of being in the choir considered to be very talented and I am very proud of that. So I may not really be having the best week ever but I know that I will have fun and my friends will always be there for me as will I for them.

I hope all of you have a wonderful rest of the year and a great holiday no matter what you celebrate. Most of all I wish everyone was as lucky as me to have such amazing friends.